Meeting Consumer Demands Through Product Customization

Customized products are challenging the idea that one size fits all. A growing number of companies are offering products that specifically meet individual consumers' needs, from products created through 3D printing to customized products designed by the shopper. Join us as we hear from leaders creating the next generation of products created specifically for their customers.

The Next Generation of Search: AI, Visual Search and More

Consumers are searching for and discovering products in new ways and through new channels, turning to their mobile devices, for example, to find products online and offline. New technologies like visual and voice-based search as well as AI are set to change the way consumers locate products they want to buy. In this session, we'll hear from leaders in search who will discuss how brands and retailers can take advantage of these technology shifts and how they need to adapt to changing consumer search behavior.

Ecommerce Companies Launching Physical Retail Locations

Ecommerce businesses of all sizes are moving away from an online-only approach and embracing physical stores, pop-up locations and showrooms to enable consumers to engage with their products in person. In this session, we'll hear from leaders of companies that complement their ecommerce operations with a physical presence, and what they've learned about using these new locations to drive sales.

Customer-Centric Supply Chain Innovation

Technology has allowed brands and retailers to develop more flexible, dynamic and customer-centric supply chains. Companies that design, manufacture and distribute products with shorter lead times are better positioned to meet fast-changing consumer needs, while accurate inventory management enables shoppers to access the products they desire. In this session, speakers from both established and early-stage companies will discuss how they create a customer-centric supply chain.

Last-Mile Fulfillment, Same Day and Pickup (Part 1)

As today’s consumers expect a greater degree of convenience and a range of delivery and pickup options, last-mile fulfillment continues to be one of most rapidly evolving aspects of the retail supply chain. In this session, leading retailers and startups will discuss their ongoing investments in technology, people and partnerships to improve the last-mile infrastructure.

Marketing Through Social Platforms

Brands and retailers are looking for new ways to promote their products and services using social platforms, and today brands are using these platforms to drive both online and offline sales. In this session, we'll hear from leading retailers and branded manufacturers as they discuss how they use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter and more to raise awareness of their offerings and convert shoppers to buyers.

The Evolution of Marketplaces

Online marketplaces have evolved well beyond their early days of auctions and pre-owned products. In this session, we'll hear from three companies at the forefront of marketplace innovation. Join us as we discuss a vertical vs. horizontal approach to marketplaces, as well as how new marketplaces are expanding their reach among both buyers and sellers and what consumers will expect from marketplaces in the future.

Last-Mile Fulfillment, Same Day and Pickup (Part 2)

As today’s consumers expect a greater degree of convenience and a range of delivery and pickup options, last-mile fulfillment continues to be one of most rapidly evolving aspects of the retail supply chain. In this session, leading retailers and startups will discuss their ongoing investments in technology, people and partnerships to improve the last-mile infrastructure.

Building Loyal Communities

Creating and sustaining a deep emotional connection between a brand and a consumer isn't easy, but those brands that do build their own community gain tremendously from the relationship. In this session, we'll hear from brands that have successfully built a loyal following by (1) identifying the shared values among a core group of customers, (2) relentlessly pursuing community as a core business strategy and (3) fostering exclusivity among members and rewarding engagement in novel ways.

Experiential Retail

Innovative retailers are creating new physical environments that enable consumers to experience their products in a more immersive and useful way. Some are creating experiences where customers can interact with their products in settings that mimic real life before buying them. In this session, leading retailers will discuss how they are creating engaging physical experiences to increase sales, decrease returns and gain a better understanding of how customers engage with their products.

Disrupting the Retail Value Chain

A new category of venture-backed brands is disrupting the retail value chain. These brands are focused on a single product category and deliver new consumer value propositions by controlling everything from manufacturing to sales and distribution themselves. They enable consumers to buy high-quality products at better prices, often in sectors served by a limited number of large-scale organizations. In this session, we'll hear from leading startups creating new direct-to-consumer brands that avoid some of the traditional retail inefficiencies.

Innovative Product Design

Beautifully designed products are a differentiator in every category, from apparel to automotive and electronics. Some companies have excelled at creating exceptional products that both serve a core purpose and also entice shoppers with a unique or elegant design. In this session, companies at the forefront of product design will share how they differentiate and excel in product development.

Beyond Technology: Building a Culture That Enables Innovation

Every organization struggles with creating a culture that encourages innovation. At startups, every hire can have an impact on whether the company is able to commercialize its innovative products and services; at larger organizations, the right processes and organizational structures can drive or inhibit innovation. Hear how executives who have run large organizations and startups have dealt with these challenges, and how their leadership style has evolved as they've learned what their companies need to remain competitive in rapidly evolving markets.

Mobile Marketing

Marketers today are creating mobile campaigns to engage consumers across the purchase funnel, from building brand awareness to driving store traffic and conversions. These campaigns are becoming increasingly sophisticated as new generations of phones include more advanced features and capabilities. In this session, we'll hear from brands and retailers that have figured out how to win over consumers on their mobile devices, both in-store and on-the-go.

New Retail Ecommerce Models

Today ecommerce companies are taking a variety of new approaches to attract and retain customers: Rentals, subscriptions and recommerce are just a few of the business models that have resonated with shoppers and translated into substantial sales. Hear leading startups discuss how they've redefined ecommerce to build and grow their businesses.

Agency Perspectives on Design

The retail experience hasn't changed fundamentally in decades, but today retailers are aiming to differentiate themselves through groundbreaking new products, layouts and store formats. In this session, we'll examine what the retail experience would look like if designed without any traditional boundaries or restrictions and how products are being reimagined to meet new, emerging consumer demands. This session will feature presentations by agencies leading product and experience design.

Organizing for Innovation and Growth

Retailers and brands continue to restructure their organizations and teams with the goal of fostering innovation that creates more customer-centric offerings. This includes everything from breaking down internal silos and becoming more efficient to shifting away from long-established cultures. No single model has proven to work for every company, however, leaving it to leaders and managers to try various approaches to determine which ones work best to implement new technologies, roll out new initiatives and experiment with new business models. Join us to hear how leading businesses are managing organizational changes that lead to great results.

The Future of Marketing

Digital and marketing executive roles are more complex than ever. While they have a huge amount of consumer data at their disposal and the technology to target the right customers in real time, they are also dealing with a high degree of media fragmentation and intense competition for customers' attention. In this session, executives from both established and startup brands discuss how they are creating meaningful emotional connections with their customers.

Acquiring and Retaining Customers

Meeting the Demands of Today's Cost-Conscious Consumer

Shoppers today want to get a fair price on everything they buy, whether basic items or products they choose to splurge on. Flash sales and other business models provide consumers with access to deals while rising price transparency online means consumers are accessing a variety of sites to compare, contrast and ultimately buy products. In this session, hear from companies whose premise is to give consumers a good deal as they discuss their pricing strategies and how they build customer relationships.

Join us to hear from some of today's leading venture capital firms as they highlight which direct-to-consumer business models are resonating in the market. Our panelists will address the changes they anticipate in how consumers discover, shop and buy and discuss how they identify the businesses that will define the next generation of commerce.

Measuring & Optimizing the New Store Experience

A wide variety of groundbreaking technologies are providing retailers with insights into all aspects of store operations as well as consumer browsing and buying in physical stores. Retailers now have access to consumer shopping data from many sources, ranging from beacons to video monitors and satellites. In this session, we'll hear from companies at the forefront of store analytics, insights and innovation as they discuss how they're using data to shape the next generation of retail stores.

The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Retail

It is early days when it comes to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in retail—however, the opportunities for AI to help drive awareness and sales are potentially far and wide. In this session, technology leaders will talk about the current utility and future use cases of AI. Our speakers are leaders at some of the most innovative companies using AI to disrupt retail—they will highlight examples of how AI is transforming the industry, from better understanding consumer sentiment to improving search results.

Evolving Brand-Retailer Relationships

While the relationship between consumer brands and retailers remains essential, brands are also investing in their own digital offerings by expanding their site content and building ecommerce capabilities to sell directly to shoppers. Join us to hear: (1) How retailers are improving the experience brands have on their platforms, and (2) how brands are balancing their retail relationships with their desire to better understand customer behavior and realize a greater margin on sales.

Emerging Technologies That Drive Retail Innovation: A VC Perspective

In this session we'll hear venture capitalists discuss which technologies are poised to transform the shopping experience. From technologies that provide critical improvements to today's offerings to others that promise to altogether change the world of commerce, hear which types of technology companies are gaining the most traction with brands and retailers.

Next Generation Attribution

Attribution remains one of the biggest challenges for marketers given the growing number of touchpoints shoppers have on their path to purchase. Brands and retailers alike are investing in cross-device and cross-channel attribution in order to truly understand customer behavior as well as allocate spending effectively. In this session, hear how the most forward-thinking marketers understand which campaigns, channels and devices are influencing consumers' decisions to buy.

Augmented and Virtual Reality

Augmented reality (AR) has moved into the mainstream. Meanwhile, there have been a spate of technical developments recently in the form of new platforms and hardware, including dual-camera phones, that are enabling better AR and virtual reality (VR) experiences. As a result, AR use cases in retail are proliferating and VR use cases are quickly emerging. In this session, companies at the forefront of this phenomenon will share their experience so far, as well as their vision for the potential of this technology to transform shopping.

Mobile Commerce and Engagement

Retailers are embracing mobile in a variety of ways, from launching mobile apps and exploring deep linking to streamlining checkout and more. In addition, retailers are targeting shoppers on their mobile devices and using technologies like geofencing to reach consumers who are near their stores. In this session, retail leaders will discuss innovative strategies that drive consumers to engage and buy on mobile.

Innovation Within Big Retail

As large retail businesses evaluate their growth strategies and how to remain competitive, they must constantly evaluate whether to (1) focus on internal initiatives and organic growth, (2) create their own accelerators to explore cutting edge technologies, or (3) partner with or buy companies to access technologies and expertise. This session will look at how retailers are investing to ensure they continue to innovate.

Advances in Analytics: Artificial Intelligence and Beyond

Entire businesses—from product assortments to consumer-facing websites—are being optimized as the amount of data available and the sophistication of tools increases dramatically. Commerce businesses are not only personalizing the customer experience at an individual level and ensuring their content drives conversion, but also optimizing inventory and assortment by location to meet the demands of today's anywhere, anytime customers. In this session, leading retailers and solution providers will discuss how businesses are testing, analyzing and optimizing the shopping experience.

Retail Formats of the Future

Retailers today are experimenting with a variety of new store formats ranging from smaller footprints to pop-up stores as well as reducing the total number of stores. At the same time, trends like ecommerce pureplays opening physical retail locations and a new wave of experiential retailing are gaining momentum. In this session, innovative retailers will discuss how they're broadening store experiences to engage shoppers.

Personalized Shopping Experiences

Today's online shopping experiences are more personalized than ever, and shoppers now expect retailers to understand their preferences and buying habits. In this session we'll hear from three companies providing different personalized experiences and understand the technologies necessary to create individualized offerings online—as well as increasingly in stores.

Adapting to Changing Consumers Across Europe

In this set of research presentations, hear experts discuss how the demographics and behavior of European consumers are changing.

European Grocery: Digital Winners

L2 benchmarks the digital performance of over 2,200 brands and retailers every year. In Europe, there are huge disparities in how supermarkets and fast-moving consumer goods brands are adapting to the digital shopper's expectations and their effectiveness at leveraging their site, digital marketing and social platform activity. In this presentation L2 will share some of its latest benchmarking research into the digital performance of these players, predicting the likely winners in 2018.

Conversational Commerce

Within the last year, chatbots and virtual assistants have gained momentum. Established and emerging brands alike are trying to figure out their strategy amidst a growing number of options in platforms, partners and formats. Speakers will lay out the near-term value proposition of conversational commerce and help make sense of the activity in this space.

Ecommerce Technology Leaders Roundtable

The technologies that power ecommerce are constantly evolving, with new solutions emerging almost daily that promise to better attract and convert shoppers. Technology leaders at brands and retailers face a daunting task in sorting through the growing number of ecommerce solutions and identifying the ones that will have the biggest impact on their businesses. In this session, we'll hear from leaders at some of the top ecommerce brands across Europe as they discuss how they build technology-forward organizations and which emerging technologies excite them most.

Reaching Millennials

With consumers aged 20-35 representing almost a quarter of the adult population in Europe, Millennials remain one of the most sought-after target markets for brands. As Millennials mature and their buying power increases, retailers and brands have to update their product and marketing strategies to cater to their evolving needs. This panel features venture-backed startups and established retailers that are successfully targeting Millennials with innovative product offerings, frictionless shopping experiences and relatable messaging.

Innovations in Consumer Payments

Mobile devices and connected commerce will drive substantial changes in how consumers pay in every context. This session will cover key aspects of the evolution of payments, including the digitization of physical wallets and plastic payment credentials, growth of frictionless in-app purchasing and evolution of in-store point of sale payment terminals. The discussion will include emerging initiatives, entry of new stakeholders in the payments value chain and payments as a platform for enhanced retailer and consumer offerings.

IoT and Connected Commerce

From home voice assistants to smart watches and refrigerators, many connected devices are now becoming commerce devices. At the same time, new digital technologies are streamlining store operations and enabling retail locations to become smarter and more efficient. Though still at an early stage, new digital touchpoints hold the potential to transform shopping by creating a more intelligent, frictionless experience. In this session, companies will discuss the evolving landscape of connected commerce and the imperative for retailers and brands alike to develop a connected commerce strategy.

Transparency and Sustainability

Concerns about health, environment and worker well-being impact purchase decisions to a greater degree now more than ever before. Retailers and brands alike are transforming their supply chains through technology and sourcing partnerships to address these concerns while maintaining profitability. Likewise, many startups are now being built on the premise of reaching customers via their core values. In this session, we'll hear from leading startups and established companies on their journey to increased transparency and sustainability in their businesses.

ProfiteroProfitero Demonstrates Digital Shelf Analytics Solution

Profitero's digital shelf analytics help leading brands double their online sales by pinpointing performance issues with search, content, pricing and other purchase drivers on Amazon and other retail websites. Profitero will demonstrate its analytics solution and unveil new capabilities that will make accessing it even easier.

Salesforce will demonstrate how its Einstein AI platform helps retailers create a personalized shopping experience across commerce and marketing. Specifically, Salesforce will show how its AI tools help retailers surface the most relevant product recommendations, as well as deliver the right marketing messages at the right time.

HeroHero Announces the Results of Its ‘Live Shopping’ Partnership with Harvey Nichols

Hero will demonstrate how store associates are providing highly personal shopping experiences to online customers through messaging and live video. In this presentation, Hero will announce the results from its partnership with Harvey Nichols.

Syte.aiSyte.ai Enhances Product Discovery Through Visual Search

Syte.ai brings accuracy and speed to visual search using object recognition and artificial intelligence, as well as advanced machine learning. The company helps brands and publishers improve monetization and brand loyalty while providing a meaningful user experience. The technology allows brands to expand their reach, making any visual asset instantly clickable and shoppable.

Voysis will demonstrate how its voice AI platform removes the constraints of shopping on a mobile device, helping users find what they’re looking for faster and more accurately. The company will discuss how voice can dramatically improve the user experience and help retailers increase their conversion.

Voyager Labs will show how it’s using artificial intelligence and deep learning to extract real-time insights from unstructured data. It will then outline how retailers can leverage those insights to personalize their marketing messages and websites in real time.

Customer service software provider Zendesk will demonstrate its latest solution, which makes it easy for retailers to create and customize a knowledge base using insights from their top agents. One of the solution’s features leverages artificial intelligence to automatically respond to emails with relevant help center articles, solving customer requests while they wait for an agent.

EcreboEcrebo Presents New Loyalty Platform

Ecrebo helps retailers generate repeat purchases by sending targeted marketing messages to shoppers at the point of sale. During this presentation, the company will present its new loyalty platform, which helps retailers understand more about their customers and how they shop. This information allows them to make better decisions to ensure the next sale starts with the end of the last.

LOOKLET’s photo solution enables retailers to create personalized fashion images at scale -- and at a lower cost. After recently rolling out its solution to the kids’ market, LOOKLET in December will expand its offering to the fast-growing plus-size category.

SMARTASSISTANTSMARTASSISTANT Unveils New Solutions for Its Digital Advice Suite, Announces Series A Funding

SMARTASSISTANT will demonstrate how its digital advisors can help brands and retailers provide customers with a more personalized shopping experience. The company will present new solutions that enable retailers and brands to engage with and advise shoppers across channels and touchpoints, and will also announce a recently closed round of Series A funding.

Optimizing Ecommerce and Stores

The Store of the Future

The role of the store is undergoing seismic changes. New technologies and the growth of online retail mean that shopping motivations are rapidly diverging between functional and fun. In this session, we explore how the rise in voice technology and auto-replenishment will impact the physical store layout, trip drivers and overall purpose, as well as how stores can become more experiential and personalized.

Insights on Europe's Top 500 Multichannel and Ecommerce Retailers

This presentation will dive into the six characteristics of successful multichannel retailers in Europe, as well as six threats that challenge their future. The findings are based on research from InternetRetailing’s Europe Top500, which ranks the region's most influential retailers across merchandising, innovation and other performance metrics.

Changing Consumer Spending Patterns in an Experience-Driven Economy

Consumer behavior and expectations have evolved, driven by the changing digital and mobile environment. In particular, shoppers are shifting their spending from goods toward experiences, posing a challenge for traditional retailers. In this presentation, Mastercard will share the latest consumer retail and ecommerce spending trends drawn from the billions of transactions that it sees each year. Additionally, Mastercard will address how to make these insights actionable, and how retailers can get ahead of these trends to add to revenue and profitable growth.

Selling Across Borders

With no one country in Europe representing more than 16% of the continent's population--and with markets like China continuing to play an outsized role in ecommerce--cross-border expansion remains a top priority for many online retailers to grow and scale their businesses. Selling internationally is not easy, however, given the differences in language, regulations, payment types and more. In this session, we'll hear from companies with an international footprint as they discuss how they manage businesses with shoppers across Europe, North America, Asia and more.

The Future of Online Retail

Customers continue to shift their budgets online leading to a changing retail landscape. Who will be the ultimate winners? Will it lead to quasi monopolies like in other internet verticals? What are the most disruptive emerging technologies?

Influence Not Affluence: Winning Over the Future Consumer

Millenials and Gen Z are fast becoming the largest consumer groups, distinguishing themselves from Baby Boomers and Gen Xers by making influence, not money, the new currency. This session will highlight yet-to-be-released findings from A.T. Kearney’s recent study, “The Consumer of the Future: From Affluence to Influence,” which surveyed almost 10,000 consumers in seven countries.

The Power of Consumer Emotions in the Shopping Experience

Consumers are not rational beings – spontaneous emotional responses are central to all the decisions they make along the shopping journey. This session will use ABA’s proprietary research to demonstrate how retailers can tap into the power of consumer emotions to build affection for their brand -- and deliver a more compelling experience.

Understanding the China Opportunity

China's middle class will reach 550 million people in the next 5 years and the country remains a key opportunity for European brands and retailers. Large ecommerce marketplaces and others are streamlining market entry and enabling brands to sell directly to Chinese consumers. In this session, we'll hear from leading marketplaces courting European brands to sell into China, as well as from brands already selling to shoppers in the region.

Creating Value in a Digital and Experiential World: Lessons From Luxury

Luxury brands are undergoing two major disruptions that are reshaping both customer expectations and the competitive landscape. First, digital technologies are shifting the balance of power between brands and consumers by offering innovative communication channels--generating an unprecedented number of customer insights. Second, consumers are turning away from material luxury and demonstrating an ever-increasing appetite for high-end experiences. This session will build on case studies and cutting-edge research to discuss how leading brands can address the needs of the future high-end consumer and create sustainable value in a digital and experiential world.

RevieveDigital Skincare Advisor

Revieve uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to analyze customers' selfies and then provides personalized product recommendations to each shopper. The technology assesses consumers' skin conditions and combines that analysis with information on environmental factors that affect each shopper's skin. Revieve also incorporates intelligence gathered across sites into its product recommendations.

ZigZag GlobalCross-Border Returns

ZigZag Global is a platform that connects retailers to a global network of warehouses, couriers and marketplaces in over 130 countries to manage cross-border returns. ZigZag's platform uses predictive analytics to calculate if a retailer should hold and resell returned products in local markets or consolidate them and return them to their market of origin. ZigZag also facilitates resale of goods in local markets.

WiseShelfLight-Based Smart Shelf Technology

WiseShelf has a unique multi-sensor appliance that detects the number of products on a shelf and sends real-time alerts to retailers when products are missing, misplaced or misshapen. The technology helps retailers improve on-shelf availability as well as increase the efficiency of the click and collect picking process.

OriientIndoor Positioning Service

Oriient uses the earth’s magnetic field to determine the position of a smart phone within one meter of accuracy inside a building. Their GPS-like indoor positioning experience does not require installation and is offered in a SaaS model.

PasabiAI-Based Personal Recommendations

Pasabi applies AI to social media feeds in order to understand an individual's style and shopping preferences. Consumers who use Pasabi get personalized fashion recommendations while retailers gain insights into customers' purchase intent in order to promote the right product at the right time.

EON-IDRFID Thread

EON-ID has created digital identification tags in the form of an RFID-based thread. The EON-ID RFID thread enables retailers to intrinsically incorporate RFID into their products, connecting them to the Internet of Things. The solution streamlines tracking of product through production, warehousing, distribution, retail, reuse and recycling.

SensefinityInventory Monitoring

Sensefinity offers an IoT-based end-to-end solution for tracking and monitoring assets used in logistics and fulfillment such as pallets and containers. Sensefinity uses sensors to track the location of products in the supply chain as well as monitor environmental factors such as temperature and humidity levels.

SkipQSelf-Checkout for Fashion

SkipQ self-checkout solution uses smart gates to determine which items have been paid for, thereby eliminating the need for security tags. Customers use the app to scan the QR code or NFC tag and pay using a stored credit card.

Follow InspirationSelf-Driven Shopping Cart

Follow Inspiration’s wiiGO is an autonomous and selfdriven physical shopping cart designed to follow people in commercial environments. Its patented technology uses image recognition to identify its user in less than two seconds, and its distance sensors allow wiiGO to identify and avoid any obstacle along the way.

what3words has divided the world into a grid of 3 meter x 3 meter squares, each with its own unique three-word address. In this presentation, the company will explain how its innovative addressing system helps retailers cut down their fulfillment times by more accurately describing dropoff points than the conventional addressing model.

NextailNextail’s Stock Optimization Solution Brings the Agility of Fast-Fashion to the Retail Industry

Nextail will present its stock optimization solution, which applies prescriptive analytics and AI to make all retailers as nimble as fast-fashion players. Nextail will also announce a new product that will help retailers optimize their buying quantities.

Scandit’s barcode scanning software turns mobile phones, tablets and wearable devices into efficient scanning devices. Its latest innovations include the use of augmented reality to superimpose product information, including images, on physical goods, as well as a batch scanning feature that allows multiple images to be scanned at once.

VTEX will demonstrate how it is helping global retailers and direct-to-consumer brands create a complete digital commerce strategy around the world. VTEX will also show its SmartCheckout patent technology.

AugmentAugment Announces New Lineup of AR Products

Augment provides an augmented reality platform that retailers and brands can leverage to display their products at scale. The technology not only helps retailers engage with shoppers, but also allows them to optimize the merchandising of their stores. During this presentation, Augment will announce its new line-up of products specifically created for retailers and manufacturers.

kwik will demonstrate how it’s using sensors and machine learning to automate shoppers' replenishment purchases at any brand or retailer. Consumers can also reorder their favorite products at the push of a button, increasing loyalty and customer engagement.

QuiqupQuiqup Launches New In-Store Picking Solution

Quiqup, an on-demand delivery company, will demonstrate its in-store picking and paying solution. The new app will streamline in-store operations, optimizing the fulfillment process for retailers and enabling a seamless last-mile proposition. Quiqup is launching this new product alongside Whole Foods Market.

StylaStyla Presents a New Version of Its CMS

Styla will present the latest version of its CMS. Specifically, Styla will demonstrate how the product’s algorithmic layout calculation, personalization and seamless shopping experience help brands and retailers convert more visitors into buyers.

YOOBIC’s app helps retailers gain full visibility of stores’ compliance, improve execution of in-store operations and carry out tasks efficiently. In this presentation, the company will present its new product.

feelter will demonstrate how its technology helps brands and retailers engage with shoppers and boost customer loyalty. It does so by filtering through the most relevant social media content to provide consumers with authentic product reviews directly on a retailer’s website.

InovRetail will demonstrate how its predictive analytics software is helping retailers understand the impact of promotions, weather and other external variables on their businesses. The company will also present its fitting room management system which allow customers to see which fitting rooms are available, and provides retailers with data on how customers are behaving in their stores.